“I don’t think we’ve settled, yet, on the actual construction,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday. “You can do steel. You could do concrete. You can do a combination of concrete and steel. You can supplement it with different types of technologies and so forth.”

And in some areas, he added, “border control’s actually telling us that they like the one you can see through.”

"The enemy isn't men, or women, it's bloody stupid people and no one has the right to be stupid." - Sir Terry Pratchett.“The Grand Canyon is a minor crevice compared to the vast chasm of ignorance of that man,” - Salmond about Donald Trump

A push for privatization is inspiring a battle between aerospace contractors and the new breed of tech entrepreneurs. The early indications are that private rocket firms like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and their supporters have a clear upper hand in what Trump's transition advisers portrayed as a race between "Old Space" and "New Space," according to emails among key players inside the administration. Trump has met with Bezos and Musk, while tech investor Peter Thiel, a close confidant, has lobbied the president to look at using NASA to help grow the private space industry.

, The Wall Street Journal reports. The paper “was invited to observe” the meeting, which included Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Trump showed an interest in building high-speed railroads “and asked for more details about the Hyperloop, a project envisioned by … Musk that would rapidly transport passengers in pods through low-pressure tubes,” the WSJ added.

"Marco Rubio is a choke artist, sweating all over the place. He was soaking wet, like he just came out of a swimming pool. We can't have that as a president". -Donald Trump

, The Wall Street Journal reports. The paper “was invited to observe” the meeting, which included Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Trump showed an interest in building high-speed railroads “and asked for more details about the Hyperloop, a project envisioned by … Musk that would rapidly transport passengers in pods through low-pressure tubes,” the WSJ added.

Richard Spencer* Managing Partner at Fall Creek Investment Management* Director of Global Atlantic Financial Group* Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies* Advisor at the Center for a New American Security* Member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel* Member of the Advisory Council on Business Executives for National Security* Director of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation* Director of VeteransCampaign.org* Fmr. ﻿Board Member at Defense Business Board* Fmr. ﻿Vice Chair and CFO of Intercontinental Exchange* Fmr. ﻿President of NB Alternatives* Fmr. ﻿President of Crossroads Investment Management* Ret. Captain of the US Marine Corps* Fmr. Fmr. Naval Aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps* B.A. in Economics from Rollins College, AMP from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University

The process of finding a fix for America’s healthcare system should not be a partisan process, Ohio Gov. John Kasich wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Friday. Instead, he said, “a true and lasting reform of the health insurance system must be accomplished by bringing the two sides together.”

Thus far, Republicans in Washington have taken a different approach from the one advised by Kasich, beginning the process of moving legislation intended to repeal and replace Obamacare through the GOP-controlled House and into the GOP-controlled Senate. But even with Republicans in position to move the bill without Democratic support, some in the GOP have expressed opposition to the bill.

The bill introduced earlier this week, the first of a three-step process in undoing Obamacare, can be passed through a budgetary process called reconciliation, allowing it to be approved with just 50 votes in the Senate. Subsequent steps are likely to require the Senate’s more common 60-vote threshold.

By moving forward on healthcare legislation without the help of Democrats, Kasich said Republicans are “starting down the same unilateral path” that Democrats did when they passed Obamacare in 2010, one that “can only further divide the nation.” He recalled his tenure in the House, where as chairman of the Budget Committee, and with the help of Democrats, he was able to make progress on Pentagon spending and welfare while balancing the budget.

In terms of specific policy prescriptions, Kasich said that cutting coverage will not save money in the long run because individuals without coverage will simply get medical care at emergency rooms and leave their bills unpaid.

Cuts to Medicaid, a provision of the GOP bill that some Republican senators have said will prevent them from supporting the bill, are also ineffective, Kasich said. Such cuts put “at risk our ability to treat the drug-addicted, mentally ill and working poor who now have access to a dependable source of care,” he said.

Pointing to his own home state, Kasich said Medicaid need not be a runaway train in terms of spending. In Ohio, Kasich said he has managed to shrink annual Medicaid spending growth from 9 percent when he took office to less than 3 percent today. The amount spent per member, Kasich said, has been level for the past six years.

“If we are to establish a lasting and successful replacement for Obamacare, Republicans should reach across the aisle for help, and Democrats should accept the offer,” the Ohio governor said. “Cutting Democrats out of the process will only make the results less effective. And if Democrats refuse to cooperate with Republicans, they will be forgoing the opportunity to solve a core problem for millions of Americans.”

Hill conservatives were just handed the opening they’ve been waiting for: An invitation from President Donald Trump to “negotiate” on an Obamacare replacement.

There’s just one big problem: They’re all over the place on what they want.

The discord on the far-right is becoming a real problem for Republicans. Allies of GOP leadership say Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his team can’t assemble a bill that can pass the House if conservatives keep moving the goal posts on what exactly it will take to secure their votes.

In the end, they might end up getting nothing at all because of the disunity, some GOP lawmakers speculated. And several even believe conservatives will vote for the bill despite their complaints and demands for change this week.

“You only get something if you coalesce around it and pledge your vote if you get it,” said one senior Republican lawmaker close with leadership. What’s happening now, the source continued, is “why they are so unsuccessful.”

On Capitol Hill, discussions between conservatives and leaders about what might be changed are ongoing — but it's far from clear where those early negotiations will end up.

That's because conservatives appear to want different things. On Wednesday night, Rep. Walker told reporters that he could get to 'yes' on the bill if leadership accepted two changes: One that would phase-out the current Medicaid expansion this year or the next instead of on Dec. 31, 2019; and another that would alter the structure of health care tax credits created in the bill.

The next morning, the RSC group as a whole asked for another change: the addition of work requirements for non-disabled adults receiving Medicaid. The press release announcing the request also mentioned the group's support for phasing out the Medicaid expansion sooner, but gone was the mention of tax credits, which are still a big issue for the Freedom Caucus.

“We’re a ‘yes’ if we get both of them and we are ‘lean-yes’ if we get one of them,” Walker told reporters Thursday afternoon of the Medicaid changes. “We’ve got to remember that these programs should be measured by how many people we’re transferring off — not how many people we’re transferring on.”

Members of the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus, however, said those changes don’t go far enough to win the group’s backing.

“Different members have different concerns, so I think it will be something that appeases some but not others,” said HFC member Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), another Freedom Caucus member who authored the work-requirement amendment the RSC is backing, agreed that his amendment alone wouldn’t be enough to win over the caucus.

“I think it’s a lump of sugar for a three-lump coffee drinker,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be two, three, four or one member” who votes for the bill because of his amendment, he added.GOP leadership is in a tricky spot. Each time they offer a concession to the right, they lose some moderate Republicans in the center. They can only afford to lose 21 Republican votes and still pass the bill — given that no Democrats will support it — so each proposed change must answer one question: Does it help or hurt the count?

Meanwhile, some conservatives still aren't sure what they need to get to yes. Outside the chamber Thursday afternoon, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), the newest Freedom Caucus member, complained that the House replacement includes a backdoor version of Obamacare’s despised mandate to obtain insurance: a 30 percent premium surcharge for people who go without health insurance for two months.

“I don’t want another mandate, and there is a 30 percent penalty!” he railed.

Asked if a change to that particular measure would mean he’d vote for the bill, he balked: “No, because there are a number of things that just aren’t appropriate.”

Meeting with Trump Thursday afternoon, HFC leaders Meadows and Jordan floated another potential compromise: blowing up Senate rules. The conservatives argued that GOP leadership was being too cautious when it comes to rules governing the Senate’s fast-tracking procedure. So-called reconciliation, which allows the Senate to pass bills by simple majority instead of the typical 60-vote threshold, is only allowed for provisions that produce significant cost savings.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could get around that, they told Trump, allowing leadership to load up the bill with provisions that might not score as big savers but Republicans believe grow the economy. The Senate could vote by simple majority to bypass the chamber's parliamentarian ruling against a provision deemed to have no change on spending, they noted.

Many senators have long argued against such a strategy, warning it would blow up the very foundation of their chamber, which the founders intended to be a slower, more deliberative body.

“I think everyone’s got a list of things they’d like to see in this bill,” said HFC member Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) when exiting a caucus meeting Wednesday night.